The Border Part Eight Read Online Free PDF Page B

wincing as he stepped around the desk and looked down at Simon’s fallen body. “That is the single most disgusting thing I’ve ever seen in my life. And let me tell you, I’ve been around the block a few times.”
    “What the hell did he do that for?” Jane stammered, her hands shaking as she held her rifle. She was rooted to the spot, with the sound of Simon’s gunshot still ringing in her ears.
    “Fear, I guess,” Ben muttered, turning to look toward the door in the corner before reloading his shotgun. “He knew the game was up, and he also knew his boss on the other end of the line wouldn’t be too happy.”
    “I need to call this in,” Jane replied, pulling her phone from her pocket.
    “And waste this opportunity?”
    She turned to him. “What do you mean?”
    “You don’t need to call it in,” he continued, “you just want to back out. Calling it in is your way of taking things out of your own hands, when we both know perfectly well that we have to keep going.”
    “A man just died!”
    “So?” He shrugged. “It’s not like he was a decent man, or a good man, or a man with any redeeming qualities at all. He died? Good. That shows we’re on the right track.” Making his way over to the corner, he pulled open the door and looked down the steps as he heard loud music thumping from the level below. “Maybe you should turn back, Jane,” he added. “This isn’t for you.”
    Stepping around the desk and taking care not to look at Simon’s corpse, Jane had already slipped her phone away.
    “I’m coming down there with you,” she said firmly.
    “Well, don’t say I didn’t give you a chance to quit.”
    Taking the lead, with his shotgun aimed straight ahead, Ben made his way down the steps until, finally, he reached the bottom and look out across the red-walled room. The scene was filled with a kind of dull haze, as bright lights burned in the corners and naked women led naked men from doorway to doorway. At first, no-one even noticed Ben and Jane as they stood at the bottom of the steps, but finally one of the women stopped and stared, as if she couldn’t quite process what she was saying.
    “You might want to get out!” Ben shouted. “Things are gonna get real ugly!” Reaching over to a box on the wall, he flicked a couple of switches and the red lights were immediately replaced by bright, unforgiving white lights, while the music came to an abrupt halt.
    “What the hell is this?” one of the men shouted, stumbling to his feet.
    “This is your late night wake-up call,” Ben replied, aiming the gun at him, “and you’d do well to take notice. Sorry, gentlemen, but the Border is shutting down tonight. You’ve all got about five minutes to get out of here before my police officer friend here starts taking names.”
    “We’re not doing anything wrong!” the man shouted, stepping toward him.
    “Then by all means stay and test that theory,” Ben said darkly.
    ***
    “It’s going to be okay!” Ruth sobbed, hurrying alongside Alex as he was wheeled out to a waiting ambulance. Reaching down, she squeezed his hand, even as his body continued to tremble. “You’re going to be just fine!”
    “It’s some kind of seizure, M’am,” one of the paramedics said. “We need to get him to hospital as quickly as possible. Whatever’s wrong with him, it’s only getting worse.”
    ***
    “Well that was relatively easy,” Ben said with a frown, looking around at the bare, brightly-lit room once the last of the customers had fled semi-clothed up the steps. “I thought at least one of them would put up a fight.”
    “This is just the first level,” Jane replied, her eyes fixed on the door in the corner. “Something tells me it’ll get harder the further down we go.”
    “They’ll also be more prepared.”
    “That guy was right, though,” she continued, turning to him. “Technically, the Border complied with every law. What they were doing might have been wrong, it might have been